España uniforme

Reseña bibliográfica de la obra "España uniforme", de José Ignacio Lacasta-Zabalza. Este libro refleja la indignación intelectual y moral del autor ante el pensamiento español políticamente correcto predominante en este tiempo. Se trata de una crítica de la España uniforme

Uncertainty and social considerations for mobile assistive robot navigation

An increased interest in mobile robots has been seen over the past years. The wide range of possible applications, from vacuum cleaners to assistant robots, makes such robots an interesting solution to many everyday problems. A key requirement for the mass deployment of such robots is to ensure they can safely navigate around our daily living environments. A robot colliding with or bumping into a person may be, in some contexts, unacceptable. For example, if a robot working around elderly people collides with one of them, it may cause serious injuries. This thesis explores four major components required for effective robot navigation: sensing the static environment, detection and tracking of moving people, obstacle and people avoidance with uncertainty measurement, and basic social navigation considerations. First, to guarantee adherence to basic safety constraints, sensors and algorithms required to measure the complex structure of our daily living environments are explored. Not only do the static components of the environment have to be measured, but so do any people present. A people detection and tracking algorithm, aimed for a crowded environment is proposed, thus enhancing the robot's perception capabilities. Our daily living environments present many inherent sources of uncertainty for robots, one of them arising due to the robot's inability to know people's intentions as they move. To solve this problem, a motion model that assumes unknown long-term intentions is proposed. This is used in conjunction with a novel uncertainty aware local planner to create feasible trajectories. In social situations, the presence of groups of people cannot be neglected when navigating. To avoid the robot interrupting groups of people, it first needs to be able to detect such groups. A group detector is proposed which relies on a set of gaze- and geometric-based features. Avoiding group disruption is finally incorporated into the navigation algorithm by means of taking into account the probability of disrupting a group's activities. The effectiveness of the four different components is evaluated using real world and simulated data, demonstrating the benefits for mobile robot navigation.Open Acces

INDICES AND ECOINFORMATICS TOOLS FOR THE STUDY OF SOUNDSCAPE DYNAMICS

The study of the new field of soundscape ecology presents several research avenues to explore. In the chapters in this dissertation, I have followed several of the technical and methodological areas of the study of soundscapes. In Chapter 1, I presented the current status of the study of soundscapes as well as an overview of the contributions made in this dissertation to the field. These contributions were framed in the definition of ecological informatics (Michener and Jones 2012). In Chapter 2, I developed a web-based system to manage audio archives. This system organizes thousands of audio files while collecting the necessary metadata

Dual antibacterial effect of immobilized quaternary ammonium and aliphatic groups on PVC

A coating comprising quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) and aliphatic moieties was formed on the poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) surface in order to confer antibacterial activity. This was achieved by grafting mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane onto PVC, followed by aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Betaine and dodecenyl succinic anhydride (DDSA) were bonded to free amine groups. The modified PVC samples were characterized by FT-IR, showing that the PVC surface was successfully coated. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy showed the spatial distributions of the elements Si and S, indicating that the coatings were homogeneous. Betaine and DDSA coated PVC showed a better antibacterial performance than the controls. This antibacterial effect was extremely reinforced in betaine-DDSA modified PVC showing greater antibacterial activity than both treatments separately applied. Antibacterial activity against Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis was studied in the treated samples showing that the coating was effective against Gram positive and Gram negative species.Fil: Villanueva, María Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; ArgentinaFil: Salinas, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; ArgentinaFil: González, Joaquín Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; ArgentinaFil: Teves, Sergio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Copello, Guillermo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; Argentin

Genetic Improvement of Oilseed Crops Using Modern Biotechnology

In 2009, big challenges facing the agricultural sector in the twenty-first century were presented to the world. Human population growth, increased life expectancy, loss of biodiversity, climate change and accelerated land degradation are the main factors contributing to rethink agriculture system production. In that scenery, modern biotechnology has set a stage for the advancement of agricultural practices and it is clearly an important ally to apply a broad array of technologies and innovative systems where they are most needed, such as enhancing crop productivity, increasing yields, and ultimately ensuring food security. One of the biggest challenges is related to technify production systems, but with no doubt, developing genetic improvement toward getting an efficient and sustainable agriculture, generating new seed qualities (new traits), such as, among others, to upset fatty acids content in oilseed crops have been growing up significantly due to industry interest. In this study, a review about the main advances in genetic improvement of some oilseed crops, starting with omics to understand metabolic routes and to find out key genes in seed oil production, and also, getting in use of modern biotechnology to alter the production of fatty acids, and to face biotic challenges in oilseed crops is presented

Vidas paralelas de las películas: circuitos estratificados de distribución y consumo

In recent years the Spanish film industry has had a level of production that has amply surpassed one hundred films, with a market share of around 15 percent of the main amortisation windows. During the so-called “Spanish Miracle” investments in production increased substantially (reaching nearly EUR 300 million per annum to the beat of the explosion in supply and consumption of television), both on the exhibition side and in domestic equipment aimed at adapting to the new digital scenario (screens, DTT, and connected TVs). The “Great Recession” and Internet caused the sector’s endemic and structural problems to resurface: a minimal presence in international markets, fragmentation of production preventing the creation of strong industrial structures, an absence of global strategies and low budgets. The problem is that this type of production affects the business life of all amortisation windows. Nevertheless, Internet and globalisation open the doors to some commercial possibilities with the appearance of productive audiences.El cine español ha tenido en los últimos años un nivel de producción que supera de largo el centenar de películas, con una cuota de mercado que ronda el 15 por ciento en las principales ventanas de amortización. Durante el llamado “milagro español” se incrementaron de forma notable las inversiones en producción (casi llegaron a los 300 millones de euros anuales al calor de la explosión en la oferta y el consumo de televisión), en la exhibición así como en el equipamiento doméstico para adaptarse a nuevo entorno digital (pantallas, TDT o televisores conectados). La Gran Recesión e Internet hicieron que se manifestasen de nuevo sus problemas endémicos y estructurales: escasa presencia en los mercados internacionales, atomización de la producción que impide crear estructuras industriales fuertes, ausencia de estrategia global y bajos presupuestos. El problema es que este tipo de producción condicionará su vida comercial en todas las ventanas de amortización. No obstante, Internet y la globalización abren algunas posibilidades comerciales con la irrupción de las audiencias productivas